PROFILE: Midtown Lunch’er “Amy”
Every Tuesday I turn over the site to a different Midtown Lunch’er for his or her recommendations for the best lunch in Midtown. This week it’s Amy, a Kosher journalist who wishes she could eat more food from a cart!
Name: Amy
Age: 20
Occupation: Journalist and Student
Where in Midtown do you Work?: 43rd and Broadway
Favorite Kind of Food: Oh, so many: chicken, Chinese food – of the kosher variety like Eden Wok on 34th, salads, potatoes of every incarnation. And I seem to make dinner by going through my fridge and cabinets and placing everything in a wrap. Of course my one true love is dessert – you can check me out at http://www.bakingandmistaking.com
Least Favorite Kind of Food: Anything fish except tuna, not a big cheese fan (I know, I know blasphemy) except for the -cake kind, hate tomatoes and olives.
Favorite Place(s) to Eat Lunch in Midtown: So with my strict kosher limitations (and incredible laziness), I don’t have a whole lot of options. That said I find myself continually heading to Schnitzel Express (on 39th and Broadway) which I love. For $10 you get a seriously big sandwich, which is pretty cheap for kosher food. I’ve tried the classic, Greek, French, American (corn flakes!) and am still waiting to get the pretzel encrusted version. I also put fried onions and garlic mayo on everything sandwich. Delicious. I’ve been too scared to try the schnitzel sushi or schnitzel bourekas but I’d love to hear from others.
“Go-To” Lunch Place You and Your Coworkers Eat at Too Often? I often end up at Milk n Honey (on 45th btw 5+6th). They have a lot of variety of pizzas, calzones, sandwiches, soups, bagels, etc. and a couple of entrees, but I most often end up at the salad bar, which is relatively well-stocked though there are a couple things I’d like to see them add – like tofu. Every couple weeks I switch up my salad – most recent addition = beets. My friend and I used to play a “guess what’s in my salad today” via gchat when we were bored. The place is always packed at lunch time with Jews of every shade – often seems like a camp/Hebrew school/neighborhood reunion for many. Here I really feel like I’m being ripped off at $10 for a salad with an additional dollar for avocado or tuna, but that’s the cheapest I’m gonna get at a strictly kosher restaurant. Often kosher eaters will eat things like salads at non-certified restaurants, but I don’t even do that. This is when I’m really jealous of the rest of my coworkers, who frequent Europa Café which is just about right outside our door and half the price. I honestly try not to eat out every day because it ends up so expensive, but laziness is obviously a factor. If you really only have a few dollars in your pocket you can head to Kosher Deluxe (on 46th btw 5+6th) and get a burger – their Chinese food is pretty decent too though the seating itself leaves much to be desired. Their virtual twin (though I believe there’s no relation) Kosher Delight is on 37th and Broadway with the same fast food + Chinese food menu – the Jews (like me) love Chinese food! Though I haven’t been for quite a while, the pizza at Jerusalem 2 – known as J2 – also at 37th and Broadway is the best kosher pizza I’ve encountered, but I think it’s like $3.50 a slice by now.
Place(s) you discovered thanks to Midtown Lunch? I recently read about the kosher food truck Kosher Oasis – I’ve yet to find it (I hear it’s at 47th and 6th these days) but now I’m in a mad pursuit of it. Food trucks are one of the things I’ve always wanted to try out but haven’t been able to, and I won’t let anything stand in my way now. It’s where I’m going to try and head for a late lunch today if I can track it down (and it’s open).
If you could work anywhere (just because of the lunch) where would it be and why? Hmmm, well believe it or not midtown is probably the biggest concentration of kosher restaurants in the city (which means the country) although a lot of them trend toward the more pricey, like Abigael’s (39th and Broadway), Le Marais (46th and 7th) or My Most Favorite Food (45th and Broadway).
Is there anything you’d like to ask the Midtown Lunch readers? Find me cheap kosher food! Actually being in Midtown is much better than living in the West Village, which might as well be a kosher food desert – I can’t even get kosher cheese at the supermarket. (Yes I know I wrote earlier that I don’t eat cheese – I’m complicated.)
Got any other Kosher suggestions for Amy? Feel free to put it in the comments. And as always, if you would like to be next week’s Profiled: Midtown Lunch’er (or know somebody you’d like to nominate), email zach@midtownlunch.com.
Posted by The ML Team at 11:45 am, February 23rd, 2010 under PROFILE: Midtown Lunch'er.
44 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
44 Comments
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This may be an ignorant question but can a Jewish person wake up one day and decides not to eat kosher anymore?
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no. they will immediately burst into flames.
(it all depends how religious you are.)
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As someone who went from Kosher to Non-Kosher to Ham Kippur, it tends to be gradual not overnight.
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Kosher Oasis is on 49th between 6th & 7th tomorrow, in front of Del Frisco’s steakhouse. At least it has been every wednesday for the past few months.
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Was that going away cake kosher?
I’m pretty sure that Moshe’s Cafe at the Citigroup center does Shawarma if you are looking for a street meat-ish meal. I think sandwiches are about $8.00
If you don’t want to walk, you can take the E, V, or 6 to get there.
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I thought halal meats are kosher? you might want to consider cheap streetmeat in your lunch options.
I’m kinda speechless about being so limited in food options.
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Q#2, Can a kosher person order a grilled fish with vegetable from a non kosher restaurant?
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FREAK OF THE WEEK
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Who is next? A vegan with multiple food allergies?
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you just made my day
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“Who is next? A vegan with multiple food allergies?”
Wasn’t there some celeb on Top Chef with that exact issue? Natalie Portman maybe?
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Zooey Deschanel. she sucked.
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a vegan allergic to the color green.
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How’d y’all find a picky neurotic jewish media person in New York?
I vote death by bacon cheeseburger
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Man, what a rough diet, here’s what I’ve learned so far.. scroll to the last line for the synopsis:
“On three separate occasions, the Torah tells us not to “boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” (Ex. 23:19; Ex. 34:26; Deut. 14:21). The Oral Torah explains that this passage prohibits eating meat and dairy together. The rabbis extended this prohibition to include not eating milk and poultry together. In addition, the Talmud prohibits cooking meat and fish together or serving them on the same plates, because it is considered to be unhealthy. It is, however, permissible to eat fish and dairy together, and it is quite common (lox and cream cheese, for example). It is also permissible to eat dairy and eggs together……
One must wait a significant amount of time between eating meat and dairy. Opinions differ, and vary from three to six hours after meat. This is because fatty residues and meat particles tend to cling to the mouth. From dairy to meat, however, one need only rinse one’s mouth and eat a neutral solid like bread, unless the dairy product in question is also of a type that tends to stick in the mouth.”In other words: Poor Amy will never know the orgasmic joys of a philly cheesesteak or double double with cheese. That’s heartbreaking, someone hold me :-(
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philly cheesesteak pizza!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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LMAO @ Cheap Kosher is a oxymoron. First thing I thought as well! LOL
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As someone who only became kosher in her thirties I can confirm that kosher folks are not missing much. Putting bacon and cheese on everything pretty much makes everything taste the same. Salt and fat. When you are more restricted your palet tends to expand because you can now actually enjoy the unique flavor of individual ingredients. But clearly this site is about the joys of eating unhealthfully in midtown so i’m not sure that a kosher profile really adds anything except the opportunity to mock.
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Alot of people like Steve come to Midtownlunch to mock. nothing personal though. =)
btw, i don’t think putting bacon and cheese make everything taste the same..but that’s just my opinion. -
not missing much? you can’t have a milkshake with a burger, or have tzaziki on a gyro, slurp up pork belly in ramen… lobster raviolis, oysters on the half shell, crab legs – I could go on! you’re definitely missing out on FOOD – but that’s not to say there aren’t any benefits (I’m assuming there is some spiritual point, I really have no idea/care) so focus & revel on that. but you’re not fooling us with the palate BS!
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i dont put cheese and bacon on my cookies, but then again i am strange.
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bacon! cheese! salt! fat! eating! mocking!
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At least she could eat filet-o-fish with the catholics. But she’snot a fan of cheese. ;P
No cheesesteak or bacon cheeseburgers = deep sadness. You might as well be vegan/ vegetarian.
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HaveFun is right….the unique healthful flavor of simple kosher food… the low-fat joys of chicken liver… the low-salt melange of pastrami and corned beef… the low-cholesterol beauty of schmaltz…the low-carb wonder of the knish…
Find me a kosher eater who is not is uptight, constipated, bad-tempered and enormous
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Actually, I keep strictly kosher and am a pretty groovy chick who poops 2 – 3 times a day and weighs in at about 110lbs. Cheeseburgers are the only part of non-kosher eating I miss, but even back then the smell of bacon made me nauseous.
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Hey everyone, this is about religion.
So I suggest before you comment you think a bit before clicking Submit. Being intolerant of someone’s religion is just not kosher (pun intended) -
How about a person who has NO religion, who has NO allergies, who has NO gender-identification issues (I only like women in MY bedroom), and who allows NO one to tell him what to eat, when to eat it, how to cook it, etc.?
Can such a person, if he were to move to Midtown, ever be considered for a Lunch’er profiling?
I thought not.
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As a formerly observant Jew, I reserve the right to mock to my hearts content. I can never be as big an a**hole as DocChuck. (I hope saying his name isn’t like saying beetlejuice and will make him join the thread…) Look up what my name means…. Now, I have an idea for a restaurant… It’s called “Baal Tshuva”, which is a Jew who wasn’t observant that becomes observant. It will have Bacon Cheeseburgers made with tofu cheese and veggie Bacon, etc etc etc… Pulled pork made with veal…
Man, I am SO happy I no longer eat Kosher
cheap kosher = oxymoron.
now we need a post all about bacon.